U.S. Pat. No. 3,903,227, dated Sept. 2, 1975 discloses tire vulcanizing apparatus including a pair of split dies which form a closed space that receives the tire. The space is supplied with a pressure medium, and means for heating the medium.
Such an apparatus requires the tire beads to closely fit the parts of the apparatus when the dies are closed, in order to keep the pressure medium from leaking from the space through the gaps between the beads and the parts forming the dies. To achieve this, pressing mechanisms are required for mechanically pressing the tire beads against the inner surfaces of the die parts.
Such a pressing mechanism is also required, when the die apparatus is open, to be displaced so as not to obstruct the movement of a tire being placed into or removed from the dies. For this reason, the pressing mechanism as a whole should have a radius less than that of the tire beads, and when the dies are closed, it should extend to the radius of the beads for compression thereof.
The pressing mechanism should also be readily adjustable in order to accommodate tires of various widths.
It is a general object of this invention to provide vulcanizing apparatus including an improved pressing mechanism.
It is another object to provide such a pressing mechanism, which does not obstruct a tire being placed into or removed from the apparatus.
It is a further object to provide such a pressing mechanism, which accommodates various axial widths of tires.